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11 October 2014

Saturday Sparkler: Queen Máxima's Wedding Tiara

One of the more useful terms for you to have in your royal jewelry vocabulary arsenal is "Frankentiara" -- a rather colorful way of referring to a sparkler that is cobbled together from parts of other pieces of jewelry. Today, we're looking at one of the Frankentiaras that graced the head of a royal bride: Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti, now Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.

The base of this starry sparkler comes from another Dutch royal treasure: the Pearl Button Tiara. There’s a debate about the actual age of the base: some think that it was made in the twentieth century, while others argue that it was a part of a coronet worn by Queen Sophie of the Netherlands, which would make it an earlier creation.

When selecting a tiara to wear to marry the future Dutch king, Máxima chose to innovate. For her wedding day in 2002, she wore the button tiara's base with five of the diamond stars that belonged to Queen Emma. Emma had been given two sets of diamond star brooches when she married King Willem III in 1879. One set has stars with ten points; the other has stars with twelve.

Máxima chose the ten-pointed stars for her wedding tiara. She wore the starry version of tiara frequently during the early years of her marriage, and although she has graduated to some of the largest diadems in the Dutch vaults, she still pulls this one out now and again. Máxima’s the only member of the family so far to wear this particular Frankentiara, but I can sort of see why: the star version of the tiara is bright, fun, and inventive -- just like this particular queen!